Alzheimer's Society vs Alzheimer's Research UK — charity comparison
In short: Alzheimer's Society: Dementia support, information, campaigning and research. Alzheimer's Research UK: Dementia research and public understanding. Match the work to your purpose, then compare dated accounts and evidence.
Data from Charity Commission register, last updated .
This comparison brings together registered purposes, source-checked interpretation and the accounts held by CharityCompare. The organisations may use different reporting periods and definitions. Read the source notes before comparing totals or treating a financial score as an assessment of programme results.
Key differences
| What to compare | ALZHEIMER'S SOCIETY | ALZHEIMER'S RESEARCH UK |
|---|---|---|
| Registered work and operating model | Dementia support, information, campaigning and research. | Dementia research and public understanding. |
| What to consider | Its registered model includes both services and research, so describing it as exclusively a support charity would be incomplete. Compare programme allocations and evidence for the type of work you want to support. | Its work focuses on research and understanding of dementia. Grants, publications and changes in treatment are different stages of progress; a funding total does not measure eventual patient benefit. |
| Access and practical checks | Check the service’s nation, location and access route. The register lists several operating areas and does not establish universal access to each service. | Use the official research and information pages to understand its remit. Research participation has study-specific eligibility and should be checked with the relevant study. |
| Sourced result or evidence gap | No programme outcome has been source-checked for this profile. This is a gap in our coverage, not evidence of no impact. | No programme outcome has been source-checked for this profile. This is a gap in our coverage, not evidence of no impact. |
What the latest filings show
Figures from the accounts held in our dated dataset; the live register may contain newer filings. Ratios can span multiple years, as labelled. Clarity scores use our methodology.
| Metric | ALZHEIMER'S SOCIETY | ALZHEIMER'S RESEARCH UK |
|---|---|---|
| Latest accounts year in our snapshot | 2025 | 2025 |
| Financial snapshot refreshed | 2026-09-06 | 2026-09-06 |
| Ratio reporting window | 3-yr avg | 3-yr avg |
| Overall score | 83/100 (4★) | 84/100 (4★) |
| Accountability & Finance | 100/100 | 100/100 |
| Spend on charitable activities | 67% of expenditure | 68% of expenditure |
| Fundraising efficiency | £2.9 total income per £1 fundraising (2023–2025, disclosed years) | £3.6 total income per £1 fundraising (2023–2025, disclosed years) |
| Latest income | £144m | £62m |
| Fundraising spend | 33% of expenditure | 32% of expenditure |
| Reserves | 3 months | 6 months |
| Accounts filing | On time | On time |
| Data confidence | high | high |
| Charity number | 296645 | 1077089 |
ALZHEIMER'S SOCIETY on the register · ALZHEIMER'S RESEARCH UK on the register
Considering Alzheimer's Society
- Dementia support, information, campaigning and research.
- Check the service’s nation, location and access route. The register lists several operating areas and does not establish universal access to each service.
Considering Alzheimer's Research UK
- Dementia research and public understanding.
- Use the official research and information pages to understand its remit. Research participation has study-specific eligibility and should be checked with the relevant study.
Common questions
Alzheimer's Society or Alzheimer's Research UK: which should I support?
There is no universal winner. Dementia support, information, campaigning and research. Dementia research and public understanding. Check the programme that interests you, the accounts period and the evidence behind any result. A financial rating is not an impact assessment.
Can I compare the headline results directly?
Only if the definitions, population, geography and reporting periods match. Research expenditure, service contacts and lasting outcomes measure different things. The source notes explain any figures included here.
How we score charities +
The Clarity Score is a 100-point rating from UK regulator filings (Charity Commission for England and Wales, OSCR and CCNI). Four pillars — Accountability & Transparency (40), Financial Health (30), Financial Efficiency (20), and Community Support (10) — each scored on a continuous scale, not pass/fail cutoffs. A statutory inquiry sets the score to 0 automatically.
Accountability & Transparency
Scored from filings
40 points — filing history (15), trustee oversight (15, scaling up to a board of three or more), declared policies (10).
Financial Health
Scored from filings
30 points — reserves (15, full marks 3–24 months, tapering on both sides), income stability (10), liabilities to assets (5, scaling down as debt rises).
Financial Efficiency
Scored from filings
20 points — program expense ratio and fundraising cost, each on a graduated scale (not a single cutoff). Kept at 20% of the total: financial-ratio scoring alone is not a reliable effectiveness signal (see "why not just an overhead ratio?" below).
Community Support
Scored from filings
10 points — volunteer-to-staff ratio from Charity Commission workforce data, scaling continuously up to a 2:1 ratio.
Overall score
Sum of all pillar points. Display stars use the same bands as the labels: 90–100 → 5★ Exceptional; 75–89 → 4★ Good; 60–74 → 3★ Needs improvement; 1–59 → 2★ Poor; 0 → not rated.